OC teams place first, third in state ethics contest

A student team from Oklahoma Christian University won the Statewide Student Ethics Challenge in Norman.

Another OC team placed third in the contest, which featured 16 teams from 10 universities across the state.

OC’s winning team, the Aguilas, won all of its matches while its other team, the Eagles, went undefeated with one tie against a squad from the University of Oklahoma.

Both Oklahoma Christian teams advance to the Regional Ethics Bowl on Nov. 17 in San Antonio, with a chance to move on to the National Ethics Bowl in Cincinnati.

“It gives one confidence in the future when you consider that students from across our state are spending time considering the ethics involved with various situations,” said Dr. Jeff Simmons, an associate professor of business at Oklahoma Christian who coaches OC’s ethics teams. “I am proud to be able to work at OC where we have some of the best students you’ll find anywhere.”

The Statewide Student Ethics Challenge is sponsored by the Oklahoma Business Ethics Foundation, which supports initiatives promoting ethical behavior on campuses throughout the state.

The schools in the competition were OC, OU, Cameron University, Oklahoma Baptist University, Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma State University, Southern Nazarene University, the University of Central Oklahoma, the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, and the University of Tulsa.

The members of OC’s Aguilas team were Hannah Ketring, a junior English major from Flanagan, Ill.; Brandon McWaters, a senior history/pre-law major from Ponchatoula, La.; and Genesis Rodriguez, a senior political science major from San Antonio, Texas.

OC’s Eagles team members were Christian Asbill, a junior political science major from Grapevine, Texas; Chas Carter, a sophomore English/pre-law major from Allen, Texas; and Austin Hughes, a junior management major from Tuttle, Okla.

The contest cases covered a variety of topics, including employer response to employees’ personal social media sites, graffiti as free speech, student loan policy in a struggling economy, open-source citations in professor and student research, and the Family Medical Leave Act.

OC’s next ethics-focused activity is the sixth-annual J.J. Millican Ethics Symposium on Nov. 13. Former NFL and NCAA football coach Gene Stallings will be the keynote speaker for the on-campus event. More information is available at www.oc.edu/stallings.

Stallings led the University of Alabama to the 1992 national championship and also served as head coach at Texas A&M University and for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. He was a longtime assistant coach for the Dallas Cowboys under head coach Tom Landry.